WASHINGTON — Democrats searching for good news amid the rubble of Tuesday’s midterm-elections results can look to Latinos and African-Americans, two groups of voters that stayed with the party in large numbers.

But in a sense, it’s small comfort.

The party was overwhelmingly rejected by whites, independents and seniors. Perhaps most troubling to Democrats: An increasing number of women also turned toward the GOP.

Young voters, so crucial to President Barack Obama’s historic victory two years ago, showed up in fewer numbers Tuesday, and many more voted Republican than before. To make matters worse, while black and Latino voters remained more loyal to the Democratic Party, they voted in far fewer numbers than in 2008. And even in those groups, 3 percent to 5 percent defected from Democrats to Republicans.

Geographically, Democrats were largely pushed out of states where the party believed it had made lasting inroads, such as Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The result is a national electoral map that more closely resembles that of the early 2000s, with Democrats largely confined to the East and West coasts, and the GOP dominating the heartland and the South.

All in all, it was a stunning whiplash of a reversal from two years ago, suggesting that neither party can claim to have a hold on the American electorate.

Voters “have the clicker in their hands, and they have no problem hitting the ‘next’ button,” said Paul Maslin, a pollster and Democratic strategist in Wisconsin. “It’s now at warp speed. You can see it in two-year cycles.”

The Democratic erosion was perhaps most accentuated by the flight of women, who were among the party’s most enthusiastic supporters in 2006 and 2008. According to exit-poll data, women essentially split their votes evenly between Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday. The last time that happened was in 2002.

White women, in particular, defected from Democrats, giving their votes to Republicans by an 18-point margin. Similarly, 57 percent of married women voted for Republicans, while unmarried women — a more liberal group — turned out in smaller numbers than in 2008.

That’s a dynamic Democrats must reverse if they are to hold the White House, said Page Gardner, a Democratic strategist and founder of the advocacy group Women’s Voices, Women Vote.

Overall, Republicans claimed 60 percent of the white vote, with seniors, an expanding part of the electorate, overwhelmingly supporting the GOP.

Meanwhile, African-Americans remained one of the Democrats’ most reliable voting blocs, and their turnout Tuesday appears to have matched 2006.